Recently I decided to pay a long-standing visit to one of my tertiary alma maters, United Theological College of the West Indies (UTCWI). The college was founded in 1966 and emerged in response to the need by the largely mainline churches to consolidate the ecumenical training of men and women in the Caribbean for ministry in the Church. It became the fulcrum of theological education in the Caribbean, and students from Christian denominations across the Caribbean were sent there to be trained. In my time as a student there were about eight denominations in attendance.

In a real sense, UTCWI functioned as the theological or divinity faculty of The University of the West Indies (the UWI). Students could elect to do theological courses as part of their primary course offerings, and some did. It was a de facto hall of The UWI, participating in intercollegiate sports and other activities. The president of UTCWI student body sat on the Guild of Undergraduates of The UWI. When I became president of the student body this was one of my seminal introductions to the veracity of student politics. It was an enlightening experience for me.

The visit for me was quite depressing. I had read earlier that the student body had dwindled immeasurably. When I was a student in 1976, there were over 80 students at the college. It was a robust student environment teeming with a lot of activities. When I learnt that there were only 19 students on a regular basis there now, my jaw fell to the ground.

You can see all the indications of stagnation. A once-thriving student body has been reduced to a few students. Cottages have been shuttered and you get a strong sense of drought as only a few students walk along corridors once filled with many students going about their activities. When I ended the visit, my mind went back to that powerful social critique of the deserted village of Auburn in 1770 given by Oliver Goldsmith in his immortal poem, The Deserted Village.

I need to be very clear that this is not to blame the present administration for the state of things, neither can I attribute blame to previous administrations. What seems obvious is that this state of affairs has existed for a long time and has been a gradual progression over the years. This is related to the fact that there has been a dramatic decline in interest in mainline churches which largely supported institutions like UTCWI.

More fundamentally, I believe that what has happened to UTCWI is a microcosm of the general crisis in theological education in the Caribbean and wider world. If you examine theological education in some of the premier theological institutions in the world, you will see evidence of this declining interest. The Episcopal Church in the United States is a case in point. Inevitably, declining interest in religion will lead to a decline in the number of people who would want to offer themselves for ministry in the Church.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic this declining interest has been placed on steroids. The pandemic not only upended church as usual, but represented a critical turning point in the life and ministry of the Church. Many, who used to physically attend church but got accustomed to the digital presentation of ministry, no longer saw the need to return to brick and mortar structures to praise God. They could now do so from the comfort of their homes, unencumbered with all the things that physical attendance represented.

But there is something more fundamental that has occurred and which started well before COVID-19. Many people had reached the stage at which religion and faith no longer functioned as being important in the ordering of their lives. COVID-19 merely confirmed this for many. High profile scandals in the Church did not help. Modern technology, especially with artificial intelligence becoming more mainstream, has led many to question the notion of God. For some, it is not necessarily a question of whether God exists, but how he can exist as an important arbiter in their daily lives.

The good news is that although the number of people not having faith in God has grown, those who believe that there is a God, or some semblance of God in their lives, have not diminished. They may not express faith or interest in the Church as an institutional reality, but there is still that sense for many of a divine power outside of themselves which still functions as an agent of social control or personal control over their worst indulgences.

My sense of despair at what I saw at UTCWI was assuaged by one unassailable principle: The Church’s one foundation is still Jesus Christ, her Lord, that with all the changing nature of life in the world, the gospel remains inviolably the word of God to us which can transform lives for the better as it has done for past generations. But there is a great deal of work to be done. Churches will have to fundamentally investigate how they practice ministry and how they engage people with this word in helping them to see its relevance to their lives. It cannot be business as usual. They have to revisit their constitutions, canons, and other forms of denominational governance to see the extent to which these are functioning as humbugs to ministry and making many churches mere institutional fossils. To what extent are these mere impediments to the shepherding work to which most subscribe?

We are now in Holy Week when we consider the passion, death, and resurrection of the Son of God. Perhaps we can use this period to begin a very serious conversation with ourselves, for as Peter reminds us, judgement must begin in the household of God (1 Peter 4: 17). We have taken too many things for granted and the old models are crumbling around us. We can lull ourselves into the illusion that none of this is happening, but where is the evidence of the vibrancy of the ministry akin to the enthusiasm of the First Century Christians? We are here to serve and not to be served, to give and not to count the cost, to labour and not to seek for any reward, to decrease that the Christ in us may increase. Let this be the beginning of our resurrection experience this Easter.

Bishop Leon Golding

I would like to congratulate my good friend, Bishop Leon Golding, on his election as the Anglican diocesan bishop for Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. He assumes his office at a critical turning point in the mission of the Church in Jamaica.

I do not only wish him well as he takes up this task, but that God’s wisdom will attend him as he stands on a bridge in history, pulsating for radical change in carrying out the perceived will of God. My prayers are with you, my brother.

Dr Raulston Nembhard is a priest, social commentator, and author of the books Finding Peace in the Midst of Life’s Storms; Your Self-esteem Guide to a Better Life; and Beyond Petulance: Republican Politics and the Future of America. He hosts a podcast — Mango Tree Dialogues — on his YouTube channel. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or stead6655@aol.com.

Raulston Nembhard